Thousands subsequently turned to social media to challenge this claim, citing easy access to assault-style weapons without background checks as the core problem. Video games are immensely popular in several countries that do not see mass shootings, many noted.

“In fact, video games positively impact our society in several ways,” said Stanley Pierre-Louis, president and CEO of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), a Washington, D.C.-based trade organization for the video game industry.

“More than ever before, we’re seeing people playing together, including parents who play with their kids, not to mention video games have led to advancements in health care, such as therapy to recovering stroke patients, and education, as interactive tools to teach kids,” Pierre-Louis told USA TODAY.

Stanley Pierre-Louis, president and CEO of the Entertainment Software Association.(Photo: Entertainment Software Association)

“Numerous scientific studies have established there is no link between video games and violence, punctuated by Justice Scalia’s ruling a few years ago,” he adds.

The Supreme Court surveyed research into video games and violence in a 2011 decision overturning California's ban on the sale of violent video games to minors. "These studies have been rejected by every court to consider them, and with good reason: They do not prove that violent video games cause minors to act aggressively," the late Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in the majority opinion.

Despite a lack of evidence to link violent video games to violent behavior, concerned parents should be aware of recommended age ratings and descriptions for every video game – to help decide what’s appropriate for members of the family – as set forth by the Entertainment Software Rating Board. The ESRB was created to help parents make informed decisions about the video games (and apps) their children play.

“Along with information to read on the box and online before you make a purchase decision, each game console offers robust parental controls that allow you to set time and spending limits, block content by age rating, restrict communication, and more,” ESRB President Patricia Vance told USA TODAY. “There’s a ton of information available, so there should be no surprises.”

Patricia Vance, president of the Entertainment Software Rating Board.(Photo: ESRB)

Vance believes there is a “false perception” about the volume of “Mature”-rated video games available today, which are designed for players 17 and older. “If you look at the games rated last year, only 9% were rated ‘Mature’ – that means there are many games available that are appropriate for younger audiences.”

The all-ages “E” for “Everyone” category has always been the ESRB’s largest category, adds Vance.

A new ESRB online resource, Parentaltools.org, launched on Monday, gives parents advice on enabling controls, divided by type of content and gaming platform.

Another noteworthy site, Common Sense Media, reviews movies, games and other media from a parent’s perspective – and identifies potentially inappropriate content.

A parent's guide to enabling controls on PlayStation 4

Whether you have a PlayStation 4, PS4 Pro or PlayStation VR, go to the Settings menu on the console's menu displayed on your TV screen – the icon looks like a briefcase – and select Parental Controls>Family Management. Once inside, select PS4 System Restrictions.

You’ll first need to type in a four-digit passcode. By default, it’s four zeros, but be sure to change it so no one can easily guess it. You can change the passcode by selecting the last option: “Change Passcode.”

(Photo: Sony.)

Select “Default Parental Controls,” which lets you set what games your kids can play, based on their age: The lower the level, the tighter the control.

For example, Level 2 is for Early Childhood, for games rated as having content intended for young children, according to the ESRB. Level 3 is for games with content generally suitable for “Everyone,” or ages 6 or older. Level 4 is for games rated “Everyone 10+,” for ages 10 and older, Level 5 allows for “Teen”-rated games for 13 and older, and Level 9 is for games rated “Mature” by the ESRB, for those 17-up. These suggested ages are merely ESRB guidelines, so you can decide if your child is mature enough.

Once these controls are set, if your kids try to play, say, an “M”-rated game, they’ll have to type in the passcode to play.

You can also set age restrictions for Blu-ray Discs and DVDs, to prevent young kids from watching inappropriate movies and TV shows, as well as restricting access to PlayStation VR content, or the use of the PS4’s web browser, if you like. To implement those controls, it’s a simple choice of yes or no. Return to the PS4 System Restrictions area and you can also use a web filter to block certain websites from being displayed.

To control how long kids and teens can play games, you’ll first want to set up a user profile for everyone in the home, under the Family Management tab. You can also choose to disable text, video and voice chat messages, block user-generated video and pictures, as well as restrict content displayed in the PlayStation Store.

Parental controls on Xbox One

To set up Family Settings for Xbox One (as well as Xbox One X and Xbox One S consoles), you must be the administrator on the game console and then set up an account for everyone else who uses it. This is handled by selecting your name in the top left corner of your Xbox home screen, and under Account, choose Family Settings and then select Manage family members to add new accounts. (Inside, you’ll also see a section here called “Family on the web” to set restrictions to online content, and you can review it in the Web filtering area under Content Restrictions.)

You can now set up permissions per account by navigating to “Privacy & Online Safety,” under Account; there you can manage the privileges and permissions for Xbox Live and control what apps are allowed. Under the Xbox Live Privacy section, you can choose “Child defaults,” “Teen defaults,” “Adult defaults” or “Custom,” if you want to customize the options per user.

In the App Privacy section, you can manage advertising, web use, location information, camera and microphone permissions, price settings per app and more.

To set or review the parental controls and family settings for each Xbox One user, select Content Restrictions from the Account page and you can see what’s allowed and what’s not, as well as what web filters are in place, per user.

Family Settings on Xbox can even create an Activity Report for kids, so they can see their own gaming habits, including screen time limits. Kids can also request extensions to their time on the console or PC, which parents can approve or decline.

Many of the privacy and online safety settings can also be managed from Xbox.com on a computer’s web browser, too.

Switch-ing on video game controls for your Nintendo Switch

Once you power up the Nintendo Switch, select the System settings icon from the main menu, and then select Parental Controls from the list on the left-hand side of the screen.

Here you can watch the full Nintendo Switch parental controls introductory video, which will tell you to download the free Nintendo Switch Parental Controls app, available for iOS (iPhone and iPad) and Android devices. You can find the app at the App Store, the Google Play store or go to p.nintendo.com.

The first step is to sign into the app with the same Nintendo account that’s on the Nintendo Switch – you’ll need to know the login name or email address and the password. If you don’t have an account, you can create one. To link the app on a mobile device to the Nintendo Switch, you’ll need to type the six-digit code provided by the app into the Nintendo Switch.

The Nintendo Switch video game console.(Photo: Nintendo)

Now, on the app, tap Set Parental Controls. The first choice you’ll have is to set the daily limit on play time. You can choose one or two hours, for example, less or more, or no limits at all.

That is, by enabling the Play-Time Limit feature for your Nintendo Switch console, you can set how long and how late the console can be used by your family. Once the time limit is reached, a notification will pop-up on the Nintendo Switch screen to inform the current player. (The app also lets you track the amount of play time for each family member on the system.)

Next, you select the age restriction (such as Child, Preteen or Teen) and select what you want to restrict – games and other software, posting screenshots or videos to social media or communicating with others over the Nintendo Switch.

For games, if you choose to restrict Mature-rated titles, a 10-year-old, for example, won’t be able to load a game rated “Mature.”

Of course, you can make changes to these restrictions at any time – such as when the child ages and you perhaps want to loosen some of these restrictions – but you will need to know the four-digit PIN on the app, which is emailed to you once you register the app.

Finally, you can use the parent or guardian Nintendo account to set purchasing restrictions on the Nintendo eShop, which has downloadable games. To do so, visit accounts.nintendo.com and sign in using the Nintendo account used to create the child's account.